What bothers me about all of this is that he writes books about it aimed at the general population, instead of proposing his ideas properly. Inevitably many of the laymen who casually encounter his ideas will misunderstand his point entirely and mistakenly think that Penrose supports a non-materialistic view of the mind (which of course he does not. A mind as Penrose envisions it, despite not being algorithmic, is still quite materialistic).
Roger Penrose is a brilliant man, but I think this is a case of the Nobel Disease (well, he hasn't received a Nobel prize, but even so).
Everything will -- somehow -- be better. Just add quantum. (protip: go read scott aaronson's relevant articles, papers, monographs, course materials, etc).
I don't claim the effects aren't present. I do claim they are unnecessary for the emergence of human level consciousness and the reproduction thereof in silicon.